Mateo Santiago novel · Chapter 18 of 24

Chapter 18: The Trade

The Black Lake lodge looked exactly as it had on the night I left it.

Same log walls, same lit window on the second floor, same two hundred wolves standing in the yard in their coats.

This time they were not in a ring.

They were in a crescent, facing the porch, and on the porch sat a steel dog kennel with Nico in it.

He had a split lip and no boots.

He saw me coming through the gate and grinned with half his face.

"Told you they took the boots," he said.

"I've been very brave about it."

"Shut up, Nico," I said, and my voice broke on his name.

Emilio stood beside the kennel in a fresh black jacket, with the silver Beta cuff on his wrist and a plastic splint across his nose.

Six hunters stood behind him.

"The thief walks in on her own legs," he announced, loud enough for the back rows.

"Alone, as ordered."

Back at the stones, a hundred yards behind me, I had left thirty rogues and one very large man standing in a line.

"If I say your name," I had told Mateo, "you come."

"If you don't hear it, you stay."

His jaw had worked, and he had put his hands in his pockets.

Now I walked up the middle of the yard in my denim jacket and boots.

Not one wolf in Black Lake could smell the fear that was making my knees shake.

← Chapter 17 · All chapters · Chapter 19 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend